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Friday, September 6, 2013

The Triceratops Pinterest Dilemma

I adore Pinterest. It is a great source of inspiration and there are so many amazing things to be explored. I'm sure my non-crochet friends are sometimes annoyed by the amount of crochet-related pins I post. I'm not joking either...just look at how many boards I have that are related to crocheting, knitting, sewing and crafting. Yes, I could have joined pinner's anonymous, but I had something equally troubling happen and I hope this calls my crochet friends to action to clean up your boards and practice better pinning habits.

The situation I am sharing happened twice and both instances occurred very closely together.

The Pin that Caused the Dilemma

This triceratops is super adorable! I pinned it because I thought it was really cute and would make a great baby gift. My friend also loved it. She contacted me and wanted me to make that dinosaur. If you follow the pin, it takes you to a page called Wanelo and it displays an error message.

No worries. Did you know you can drag any image into the google search box and it will show you where that image has been used on the web. I finally traced it back to an Etsy shop: HenryStMartin. The shop has a lot of super cute and cuddly animals, but they do not sell patterns. I searched on Ravelry for a pattern for this exact dinosaur and couldn't find him.

So, I Tried a Different Design

This is Tara the Triceratops designed by one of my friend's on Ravelry. I pinned this pattern to my Amigurumi Board on Pinterest and asked my friend, what do you think of this one? She came back that the original one she requested was the one she really wanted because it most resembled the plastic toy her son plays with all the time.

Introducing the Favorite Plastic Dino Toy

This is the toy that the sweet little boy plays with all the time. His mom loves him so much that she wanted to buy him a huggable sized animal that resembles his wind-up toy.

I always stand my ground on respecting other people's designs and not copying. I offered to replicate the plastic toy dino in yarn.

Here is the progress photo as of today:

The Moral of the Story is....

Be careful what you pin! Pinning is fun and we love sharing what our friends' designs and finished items. But, be mindful that at some point, someone will see something that you cannot morally and ethically recreate. The only way that I justified this one is by making the animal look like the plastic toy. It doesn't look like my friend Hollie's design nor does it look like the Etsy triceratops. In the end, I think the little boy is going to love his dino.

I have been asked if I will write out and sell this pattern. For this one, the answer is no. I have had a lot of fun creating this. If you want to make a triceratops, then please buy the pattern I linked above. Hollie is working really hard to create 70 amis that will be gifted to kids this Christmas. Yarn is expensive and every pattern sale will help fund her charitable project. :)